mastodon 4.7.3The LIGO Scientific Collaboration. We detect gravitational waves!
Email: questions@ligo.org
Our latest discoveries—two of the loudest gravitational-wave signals ever: #GW240925 and #GW250207
Using these signals, and our understanding of binary black holes, we can verify that our detectors are correctly calibrated
https://ligo.org/science-summaries/GW240925-GW250207-astro-calibration/
A boom in gravitational waves leaves scientists with more questions than answers: Scientific American reports how we still have much to discover after #GWTC4
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-hundreds-of-gravitational-wave-events-reveal-about-the-universe/ by K. R. Callaway
The universe is humming with ripples in spacetime
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/the-universe-is-humming-with-ripples-in-spacetime-scientists-just-doubled-our-catalog-of-black-hole-and-neutron-star-collisions from @Spacecom@flipboard.com discusses our #GWTC4
Happy Valentine's Day to all gravitational-wave fans, and especially Virgo and KAGRA 💞💗💓
10 years ago today, our discovery paper was published in Physical Review Letters
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
It has gone on to be highly cited. But it has also had an impact outside of academia—its #Altmetric score is in the top 1000 of all papers ever
New #LIGOMagazine out now! :
Check it out at:
👉 www.ligo.org/magazine
where you can find all editions of LIGO Magazine free to download!
#GW150914 birthday cakes enjoyed by our scientists. You can't make discoveries without an occasional sweet treat
Last Sunday was the 10th anniversary of our first #GravitationalWave detection!
Join us for a thread of celebratory cakes enjoyed by members of our collaboration
First, a cake from OzGrav. Looks like plenty to share?
🖼️: J Powell
🧵🎂 #GW10Years
Our next LIGO Virgo KAGRA webinar will discuss tests of general relativity with #GWTC4 (papers https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19019 https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19020 https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19021).
If you you are curious about understanding gravity and the nature of black holes please join!
26 March at 13:00 UTC, with the recording on YouTube after
Register for free https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G2EyvI8rTzqRRJ6nfe51BA
To convert UTC to your timezone you can use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20260325T130000&p1=137&p2=64&p3=179&p4=213&p5=90&p6=215&p7=111&p8=44&p9=33&p10=248&p11=152
[Updated to correct time]
Happy #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience! We are happy to share this online symposium organised by LIGO-India highlighting contributions from female scientists to our field of gravitational-wave astronomy
A new mini-documentary by our colleagues at @UofGravity@mastodon.scot celebrating the 10th anniversary of our first detection and the progress in #GravitationalWave astronomy
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration will greatly miss our friend and colleague, Professor Rainer Weiss, whose immeasurable impact on gravitational-wave astronomy will be felt for generations to come
Our thoughts are with Rai's family and friends
Our fourth LIGO Virgo KAGRA observing run has now drawn to a close. We will be busy analysing data for a while to come—watch out for more discovery announcements.
We will be back next year https://observing.docs.ligo.org/plan/
LIGO: Detection, a documentary by Kai Staats looks at the stories behind our first detection (featuring our much missed Rai Weiss)
"Ten years ago, scientists heard the universe rumble for the first time. That first discovery of gravitational waves began a new era of astronomy."
Our collaboration member Simon Stevenson writes about gravitational-wave astronomy today
#GW10Years 🔭🧪⚛️
🖼️: C Knox
🔭Our fourth observing run is due to end on November 18. However, we now expect to have a 6 month observing run in 2026–27 to begin in the late summer/early fall of 2026, with detectors participating as available
What has happened in the 10 years since #GW150914?
@Spacecom@flipboard.com picks their top 10 discoveries. What are yours?
https://www.space.com/astronomy/ligo-legacy-10-incredible-gravitational-wave-breakthroughs-to-celebrate-observatorys-landmark-2015-find by
@RobertLea@qoto.org
#GW10Years #GravitationalWaves #GWTC4
The #LIGOMagazine celebrates 10 years since our first detection #GW150914 with their birthday issue
https://ligo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LIGO-magazine-issue27.pdf
LIGO members have gone on to many varied careers, including computational linguistics.
In the #LIGOMagazine Lucía Santamaría told us about working on machine translation to convert text from one language to another. "My time in LIGO was extremely rewarding, both personally and professionally."
Read all about it at https://ligo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/LIGO-magazine-issue17.pdf#page=31
Our next LIGO Virgo KAGRA webinar will introduce the analysis methods used for our #GWTC4 results (paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18081). If you you are curious about the techniques used for our discoveries please join!
19 February at 15:00 UTC, with the recording on YouTube after
Register for free https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ey7T8h4hQzyagXE7kqsk2g#/registration
To convert UTC to your timezone you can use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20211206T150000&p1=137&p2=64&p3=179&p4=213&p5=90&p6=215&p7=111&p8=44&p9=33&p10=248&p11=152
Count down the top 10 breakthroughs in the 10 years since our first detection with @Spacecom@flipboard.com. Do you agree with their picks?
https://www.space.com/astronomy/ligo-legacy-10-incredible-gravitational-wave-breakthroughs-to-celebrate-observatorys-landmark-2015-find by @RobertLea@qoto.org
Daniel Williams @daniel_williams@mastodon.scot joined our collaboration on 14 September 2015 at the start of his PhD. He shares his perspectives on the last decade and things to come
https://astronomersdiary.substack.com/p/celebrating-ten-years
Later today!
During the recent LIGO Virgo KAGRA meeting, the 2024 winner of the LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration, Louis Dartez, received his honorary Calibration Wizard hat.
Congratulations to Dr. Dartez, our newest LIGO Calibration Wizard!
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/award-excellence-detchar-winner-2024
Our webinar is later today!
@WellsiteGeo@masto.ai We like to be as welcoming as possible. Nothing worse than missing something due to getting the time wrong
@WellsiteGeo@masto.ai It is @LIGOVirgo@www.youtube.com Bon appétit
@schnedan@social.tchncs.de The LIGO Scientific Collaboration is made up of scientists from many countries, working together at institutions around the globe. We work hand-in-hand with Virgo and KAGRA, who are also wonderfully international. We are very proud of our history of working across borders together.